A very important aspect of the present invention is that it provides an expandable spine for a volume for use as an album or binder that has the external appearance of a bound book. The spine of a bound book is characterized by a continuous, unbroken surface across the back of the binding. Different styles of book bindings are marked by different stylistic details, such as the raised ribs across the back of a hand-sewn flexible binding or the French grooves at the joint between the spine and covers of a library bound book. However, all of these styles share the unifying characteristic of a continuous, unbroken surface across the back of the binding. There are no assembly joints or exposed hardware on the spine of a book to mar its appearance. This bound book appearance is desirable for albums and binders because it offers the most aesthetic presentation for the materials contained. This aspect is especially important for the displaying of valuable artwork or photographs with great sentimental value such as wedding photographs where anything less than a high quality bound book appearance would detract from the presentation. The bound book appearance would also be important for binders or albums used as "coffee table books" which are used to display artwork, prints or photographs in people's homes. The desirability of this feature should be kept in mind while reading the following discussion of the prior art.
LOOSE-LEAF PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS--Albums and binders for storing and displaying materials, such as artwork, photographs or memorabilia, are well known. One style of professional photograph album constitutes a loose-leaf binder with individual photo-holding pages having hinge rods that are inserted into hinge retainers on the spine of the binder. The individual pages may be removed from the album for separate mounting of the photographs, then the pages may be replaced by reinserting the hinge rods into the hinge retainers. Many variations of this concept have been patented. U.S. Pat. No. 1,399,016 to Jones shows an album of this type where the hinge rods of the loose-leaf pages have heads that may be inserted or removed through key slots in the hinge retainers. U.S. Pat. No. 1,279,673 to Dobersch discloses an album wherein the hinge rods are inserted into grooves in the hinge retainers through an entrance in the side of the retainer. The entrance to the groove can be closed by a hasp or other closure means. U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,333 to Roberts describes an album with special photo-holding pages that may be inserted into the slotted hinge retainers by bending the hinge rods. U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,750 to Hoffmeister and Holson describes an album of the same general type in several embodiments that have different closures incorporated into the hinge retainers so that the hinge rods can be inserted without bending them.
Loose-leaf albums such as these may be constructed in such a way that on the exterior they resemble a bound book. However, a distinct disadvantage of these prior art albums is that they are made to contain a specific number of pages. If the user wishes to add more pages, the album must be replaced with one of greater capacity. Besides the inconvenience to the user, this inflexibility also presents an inconvenience to the manufacturer and the seller in that they must either inventory binders with every possible increment of page capacity, or they must custom manufacture different sized albums for each customer's order. Either of these solutions causes inefficiencies in production that are likely to result in higher cost and long delays for delivery to the customer.
EXPANDABLE BINDERS--Other types of loose-leaf binders commonly used for binding printed material have expandable spines so that the capacity of the binders can be increased or decreased to match the volume of material contained. Various types of retaining means are used to hold the pages in these binders. U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,740 to Strong describes a ring binder with expandable capacity. U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,634 to Fenston describes an expandable loose-leaf binder where the pages are held by semicylindrical pins which coact to provide cylindrical posts for retaining the pages. U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,143 to Federbush et al. describes an expandable post binder that has overlapping rear flanges along the spine. All of these expandable binders share the drawback that they do not have the appearance of a bound book. On some, the screws or clamps that operate the expansion mechanism can be seen exposed on the binding. Even on high quality expandable binders where all of the hardware is hidden, the overlapping expansion joints visible on the spine reveal that it is a binder and not a bound book. This may be acceptable for the storage of journals or other printed material, but it detracts from the aesthetic appearance of the binder. This makes it less suitable for displaying valuable artwork or photographs with great sentimental value such as wedding photographs.
EXPANDABLE PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS--A number of attempts have been made to combine the functions of loose-leaf photo albums with expandable binders. In the TAP Lock-Leaf album made by the Taprell Loomis Co., each individual page has a double hinge member which attaches it to the previous page and to the next page. Complete albums are built up by locking the desired number of pages together, then attaching front and back covers that have a single hinge member. The hinge members are completely exposed on the spine, so the finished album does not resemble a bound book. The Encore album, also from Taprell Loomis, is an expandable post bound loose-leaf photo album. An attempt is made to give the album a bound book appearance by providing it with an expanding backstrip that covers the spine. However, the bound book appearance is marred by two visible expansion joints where the backstrip inserts into the front and back covers of the album. U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,332 to Holes et al. describes an expandable loose-leaf photo album where the individual pages are held together by flexible straps that pass through U-shaped hinges on the pages. A flexible hinge cover inserts into pockets in the front and back covers. Again, the bound book appearance is marred by the visible joints where the hinge cover inserts into the front and back covers. Despite these attempts, none of the prior art has provided an expandable loose-leaf album or binder that truly has a bound book appearance.